=== Todays Toon ===
Cleveland, portrayed as a tariff reformer
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. He was the winner of the popular vote for president three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was the only Democrat elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination that lasted from 1860 to 1912. Cleveland's admirers praise him for his honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. As a leader of the Bourbon Democrats, he opposed imperialism, taxes, subsidies and inflationary policies. As a reformer he also worked against corruption, patronage, and bossism. - a successful Dem who opposed extra taxes - ed.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”- Deuteronomy 7:9=== Headlines ===
In a remote mountainside on the Norwegian tundra sits mankind's last hope in the event of a global disaster — but this modern day Noah's Ark isn't packing any animals.
ACORN Fraud Ignored?
Obama Justice Dept. closed investigation into Acorn last year, despite acknowledging 'questionable hiring and training practices' at community group, watchdog says
Doubts Raised on Obama Tax Pledge
Senate health bill raises costs for millions in middle class, study says, counter to Obama's vow to spare them
ROTC Enrollment on the Rise
Shunned by colleges across U.S. for more than 40 years, Army's ROTC program apparently is making a comeback
Police Release Photos Calif. Serial Killer Took of Girls
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Prosecutors said convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala used his camera to gain the trust of young women and now they fear photographs he snapped decades ago could contain images of more potential victims. Hundreds of Alcala's photographs, apparently taken before his first arrest in 1979, were released by Huntington Beach police Wednesday, featuring women and girls in candid and posed shots. Some show them naked and engaging in sex acts. Most of the dozens of subjects in the photos have never been identified and now police are asking for the public's help in figuring out who the women are. A jury recommended death Tuesday for Alcala, 66, in the murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women dating back to the seventies
Better Mind Reading Through Science
Scientists have made impressive gains recently when it comes to reading minds. Using brain scans, researchers can tell what number a person has just seen, which letters a person wants to type, and where people stood within virtual reality environments. - now hook it up to Obama or Rudd and ask some questions. - ed.
The worst performing airport of 2009 was the only terminal to report a fall in passenger numbers, but it managed to increase profits by cutting its service quality, the ACCC reveals.
Navy 'sex ring' targeted females
YOUNG female sailors "bullied and coerced into having sex with senior sailors on a navy ship".
Students badly burnt in science explosion
TWO teens suffer third degree burns after an experiment went horribly wrong at a high school.
Bingle 'knew AFL star was married'
THINGS go from bad to worse for Lara Bingle as footy legend spills the beans on her infamous affair.
Man 'raped daughters to save bloodline'
A MAN allegedly raped his five daughters in a funeral home to survive an impending apocalypse.
Australia joins Iran as 'internet enemy'
AUSTRALIA has been blacklisted with Iran and North Korea over the Government's web filter plans.
Case against footy star 'tenuous'
LAWYERS blast "weak" case against AFL star, calling for drug trafficking charges to be dropped.
'Toddler alone in car as dad shoplifts'
A MAN has been arrested and charged after allegedly leaving his 13-month-old son alone in a car while he allegedly went on a shoplifting spree in Sydney.
CIA 'experiment' sends village mad
A US writer has found evidence the CIA spiked a French village's food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD - the US writer may not have found anything at all, but a convenient way to derail evidence of left wing bias which extends well beyond the village. - ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
The U.S. Campaign for Burma(USCB) owes much of its success to the hard work and dedication of interns who take on projects and general responsibilties to help the office run smoothly. We are now accepting internship applications for summer 2010. The deadline for applications is Monday March 29, 2010 at 5pm.
Interning with USCB is a great way to learn about how advocacy groups in Washington, D.C. function from an insider's perspective and to gain work experience for a future career in the field of human rights or Burma related work.
Summer Internship Program
The U.S. Campaign for Burma is a human rights advocacy organization working to promote freedom, democracy, and human rights in Burma. We rely on grassroots members and supporters across the U.S. and around the world to shape US government policy and to encourage effective UN action on Burma.
An internship with the U.S. Campaign for Burma is best suited for students interested in human rights, grassroots organizing, non-violent political movements, congressional advocacy, democratization, mechanisms for international justice, new media and technology, non-profit operations, South-East Asian affairs and/or Burma.
Summer internships with the U.S. Campaign for Burma run from June 1st - July 31st (dates negotiable) in our Washington, DC headquarters. Internships are unpaid. Interns are required to commit to a minimum of 15-20 hours per week. Academic credit can be arranged by us. Upperclassmen, recent grads and graduate students are strongly encouraged to apply.
The deadline to apply for summer internship is Monday March 29, 2010 at 5pm. Only short listed candidates will be contacted for an interview. Interviews will take place during the first and second week of April and candidates may interview over the phone if necessary.
How to apply: Please apply immediately by sending a resume, cover letter, and writing sample of 3-5 pages (and/or a brief piece of published written work, such as a letter to the editor) to Mike Haack at internships@uscampaignforburma.org. Please use "Summer Internship Application" as the subject of your email. Only complete applications will be reviewed.
Positions Available:
Grassroots Outreach Intern
Duties include: drafting documents for external communication, including email action alerts, factsheets, and discursive "campaign primers," and tabling at various Spring events such as summer concerts and conferences.
This position is ideal for someone interested in grassroots campaign skills; such as good messaging, targeting of supporters, and creating sustained "buy-in." Ideal candidates will have knowledge of Burma and experience with grassroots campaigns.
Website Development Intern
Duties include: drafting content for the website; conducting Internet research for content development; and creating images for the website. They will also take care of daily duties such as updating the news.
This position is ideal for someone interested in a career in developing written communication skills. Demonstrated interest in human rights a must. Some experience with web development and knowledge of Burma highly desirable, but not required.
Development Intern - Fundraising & Grant-Writing
Duties include: helping to organize our anual "Arrest Yourself" for Aung San Suu Kyi campaign and other grassroots fundraising efforts; processing donations received by USCB.
This position is ideal for someone with an interest in non-profit management and fundraising. Some grant-writing experience desired. Familiarity with Democracy in Action database desirable but not required.
New Technology & Social Networking Intern
Duties include: maintaining and updating USCB's presence on social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter; updating USCB's blog; maintaining USCB's presence on Web 2.0 websites such as Change.org, Network for Good, and Ebay Giving Works; promoting USCB's presence on other human rights/social action websites through widgets and postings; assisting staff with using new technology such as embedding video and streaming content.
This position is ideal for someone interested in the use of new technology for promoting human rights and social justice. Knowledge of Wordpress and familiarity with social networking sites required. Knowledge of digital media, film editing, html code, and creating widgets strongly desired.
Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:
Become a member of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
===
No one covers health care like Greta!
On the ground, getting answers, bringing you closer to the truth!
Now, Mike Huckabee and Dick Morris reveal the impact of the bill on the Hill!
The History of Extremism
Glenn Beck exposes the political extremism in America you won't find in the history books!
===
Trouble Brewing?
Is Nancy Pelosi mixing it up with the White House? Laura Ingraham stirs the pot!
===
Free Enterprise ... Under ATTACK!
Fining companies, closing stores, arresting owners! John reveals the bureaucratic plan to wrap up small businesses in red tape.
=== Comments ===
Did The New York Times Fabricate a Front-Page Story?
By Bill O'Reilly
The headline Wednesday in The Times reads: "Conservatives Split Deeply Over Attacks on Justice Department Lawyers." The article says that Liz Cheney's group, Keep America Safe, has alienated some on the right because the group is criticizing American lawyers who have defended captured terrorists.
It is true that people like Judge Ken Starr and some conservative groups like The Federalist Society have said there is nothing wrong with a lawyer defending a jihadist.
And "Talking Points" agrees. The best example is John Adams, who as a young lawyer defended a Brit involved in the Boston Massacre, certainly an act of terror.
But here's the kicker on The New York Times. We can find no high-profile conservative who has criticized attorneys for the job of defending incarcerated terrorists. Certainly no journalist working at Fox News has done that. Commentator Monica Crowley did say she believes some lawyers hired by the Justice Department may sympathize with some of the terrorists. And writing in the National Review, conservative Andrew McCarthy said:
"It is perfectly obvious that many progressive lawyers are drawn to the jihadist cause because of common views about the need to condemn American policies and radically alter the United States."
And that's true. The conviction of attorney Lynne Stewart in the Blind Sheikh case proves it.
So there is no controversy within the conservative community. I believe 90 percent of those on the right support attorneys for jihadists. Again, that is our system, and it is an excellent example to the rest of the world.
What The New York Times doesn't get is that there are legitimate questions about why Attorney General Holder has hired nine lawyers who were involved with terror suspects. Here's what I said about that:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I think that when Holder sent that letter to Congress, he was basically saying, look, I'm hiring these guys because they have expertise in this area, just as a white-collar defender would know the tricks of the white-collar felons. I think that's what he meant there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
What The Times also did not report is that the problem exploded because Holder wouldn't tell the American people who he hired. Fox News had to break that story because you have a right to know who's working in the Justice Department.
So the page-one story was bogus. It's not about a controversy among conservatives; it's about who Mr. Holder hired and why.
As I speculated, he may have good reasons, but I shouldn't have to speculate. Holder should tell us, and that's what The New York Times should be concerned about, rather than creating a phony story to denigrate people with whom they disagree.
===
I Was Am-Bushed On MSNBC Over Iraq
By Bradley Blakeman
I was invited on MSNBC the other day to discuss Karl Rove’s book with anchor Davis Shuster and journalist David Corn of Mother Jones magazine and the author of “The Lies of George W. Bush” only to be am-BUSHED with the worn allegation by the left that President Bush lied his way into war with Iraq.
The left is consumed with charges that somehow Bush and his “gang” were able to bamboozle Congress, the U.N., and everyone else on the planet with regard to why it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power and bring him to justice. Both Shuster and Corn ganged up on me charging that Bush lied and would not let me get a word in edge wise. They interrupted and would not let me finish a thought. In a desperate attempt to “prove” he was right, Corn offered to bet me $1,000.00 that he could “prove” Bush lied. And, who was going to be the judge? Yep, you guessed it, David Shuster. Does that not sound like an impartial and “fair and balanced” wager? I think not.
All this in light of the fact that just last month, Vice President Joe Biden went on Larry King and bragged that “Iraq could be one of the greatest achievements of this administration.” This from a man who as a US Senator was against the war and the surge and sided with many Democrats who declared in 2003 that the “war was lost.”
The left distorts the facts with regard to the lead up to the Iraq war to fit their conspiratorial theories. However here are the facts:
*November 1997: Hussein ordered all American weapons inspectors in Iraq to leave in violation of UN Security Council Resolution.
*December 1998: President Bill Clinton orders “Operation Desert Fox” a robust four day aerial bombing mission by US and UK Air Forces. This operation was in retaliation for Iraq’s failure to obey UN Security Council Resolutions and their obstruction of UN Weapons Inspections.
Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the following about the attack:
"I don't think we're pretending that we can get everything, so this is - I think - we are being very honest about what our ability is. We are lessening, degrading his ability to use this. The weapons of mass destruction are the threat of the future. I think the president explained very clearly to the American people that this is the threat of the 21st century. [. . .] [W]hat it means is that we know we can't get everything, but degrading is the right word."
*1998-2002: Saddam Hussein allowed no UN weapons inspections.
*September 2002: President Bush Addresses the UN General Assembly and sets forth a long list of complaints against the Iraqi government with regard to their continued threat to the region, our allies and the world including but not limited to:
1. Support of terrorist organizations that directs violence against its neighbors and the West;
2. UN Commission on Human Rights finding in 2001 that Iraq was engaged in “extremely grave” human rights violations;
3. The failure to let UN weapons inspectors conduct their work to insure and prevent Iraq is not pursuing WMD in violation of UN Resolutions;
4. They used proceeds from the UN “oil for food” program to purchase weapons rather than to feed its people.
*October 2002: After extensive debate, the US Congress overwhelmingly passes a Resolution giving President Bush the power and authority to use military force to enforce UN Security Council Resolution.
Here are some comments made by prominent Democrats at that time:
DICK GEPHARDT: HOUSE DEM LEADER
"The issue is how to best protect America. And I believe this resolution does that."
TOM DASCHLE: SENATE MAJ. LEADER
"I believe it is important for America to speak with one voice," said Daschle, D-S.D. "It is neither a Democratic resolution nor a Republican resolution. It is now a statement of American resolve and values."
SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON
In the closing hours of debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said the decision to back the resolution was "the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but I cast it with conviction. I want this president, or any future president, to be in the strongest possible position to lead our country, at the United Nations or at war."
*November 2002: The UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441. The Resolution stated that Iraq was in material breach of the terms of UN Resolution 687, which prevented Iraq from developing WMD as well as other prohibited arms, and the failure to compensate Kuwait for the looting that took place during the illegal 1991 invasion and occupation. The Resolution called for a new round on inspections and demanded that Iraq prove to the UN’s satisfaction that it has surrendered its WMD efforts will disarm as well as account for all weapons existing, destroyed and missing within 30 days of the Resolution being passed. Iraq refuses to comply with Resolution 1441.
*March 6, 2003: In his March 6, 2003, report to the U.N. Security Council, Hans Blix reported that the declared stocks of anthrax and VX remained unaccounted for. In the last chance given to Iraq by Resolution 1441, Iraq had failed to provide answers. As Blix reported again in May 2003, "little progress was made in the solution of outstanding issues.... the long list of proscribed items unaccounted for and as such resulting in unresolved disarmament issues was not shortened either by the inspections or by Iraqi declarations and documentation."
*March 20, 2003: The Iraq War begins.
Here is what former president Bill Clinton said on July 22, 2003 about the danger Iraq faced to the world:
"When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for. That is, at the end of the first Gulf War, we knew what he had. We knew what was destroyed in all the inspection processes and that was a lot. And then we bombed with the British for four days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn't know. So I thought it was prudent for the president to go to the U.N. and for the U.N. to say you got to let these inspectors in, and this time if you don't cooperate the penalty could be regime change, not just continued sanctions."
The fact that the U.S. never found WMD does not mean Saddam did not have it or that he did not desire the ability to amass it whenever he saw the need. Let us not forget that Hussein used WMD against his own people, killing thousands of Kurds.
Saddam Hussein was interrogated while detained in Iraq by FBI agent George Piro and this is what agent Piro had to said in an interview with Scott Pelley for “60 Minutes”:
"He told me that most of the WMD had been destroyed by the U.N. inspectors in the '90s. And those that hadn't been destroyed by the inspectors were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq," Piro says.
"So why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk, why put your own life at risk to maintain this charade?" Pelley asks.
"It was very important for him to project that because that was what kept him, in his mind, in power. That capability kept the Iranians away. It kept them from reinvading Iraq," Piro says.
Before his wars with America, Saddam had fought a ruinous eight-year war with Iran and it was Iran he still feared the most.
"He believed that he couldn't survive without the perception that he had weapons of mass destruction?" Pelley asks.
He told me he initially miscalculated President Bush and President Bush's intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 under Operation Desert Fox. Which was a four-day aerial attack. So you expected that initially," Piro says.
Piro says Saddam expected some kind of an air campaign and that he could he survive that. "He survived that once. And then he was willing to accept that type of attack. That type of damage," he says.
"Saddam didn't believe that the United States would invade," Pelley remarks.
Bush did NOT lie. President Bush acted in the best interests of the United States. Was our intelligence faulty? Yes. Did that change the fact that Saddam should be removed? No.
The truth will never be accepted by those who refuse to accept it. However, I will continue to fight for the truth even if it means being “am-BUSHED” on MSNBC.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently a professor of Politics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent contributor to the Fox Forum.
===
A Courageous Voice Silenced In the Middle East
By Judith Miller
One of Islam’s most influential and moderate voices has been silenced with the death of Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi.
The 81year-old sheikh who was not only Egypt’s leading official religious authority but the head of one of its largest universities, Al Azhar, was visiting Saudi Arabia when he suffered a fatal heart attack on Wednesday.
Appointed by President Hosni Mubarak as “Grand Sheikh” of the state supported Al-Azhar Mosque and University in 1996, Tantawi had been Egypt’s chief state sheikh, the so-called mufti, since 1986.
He was a wily pragmatist, a man of his time whose fatwas, or religious rulings, separated him from his predecessor, who had also been appointed by Mubarak. Whereas his predecessor, Gad al-Haqq Ali Gad al-Haq, had defended female circumcision – officially discouraged but still widely practiced in Egypt – Sheikh Tantawi had condemned it. While Al-Haq had ruled that Egypt’s education minister could not dissuade girls from wearing headscarves (the hijab) to school by requiring that parental permission, Sheikh Tantawi infuriated religious fundamentalists by banning female students who wore the “niqab,” or veils covering virtually all of the face, from entering classrooms and dormitories in Al-Azhar university. And finally, while Al Haq had decided to grant the exalted title of “shahid,” or martyr, to an Egyptian member of a violent militant Islamic sect, the so-called Islamic Group, which had joined Palestinian militants from Hamas in a deadly attack in Jerusalem that left 16 Israelis wounded and ten dead in 1994, Sheikh Tantawi condemned suicide bombings and other murders by militant Islamic groups. The gap between Islam and the self-appointed “holy warriors” who thought little of killing innocent civilians in their rage against alleged “traitors” to Islam, he said, was like the gap between the earth and sky.
Such positions took courage, even from Egypt’s state-blessed religious authority.
Al- Azhar, the seat of Islamic learning for nearly a thousand years, is among the world’s most prominent Sunni Muslim institutions. So each of his fatwas was subjected to intense scrutiny and often heated debate. Detested by militant Islamists, he took the traditional Islamic view that the ruler of a state was to be supported by all believers as long as he upheld the laws of the state and of Islam. This enraged militants, who saw him as Mubarak’s religious tool.
He was the first to attend meetings of the Rotary Club, long considered suspect by conservative Muslims, and the first to approve such TV game shows as “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” There was no reason why women, he ruled, could not be a state’s president, a stance rejected by most religious fundamentalists.
There were limits to his courage, of course. His decision to shake hands with Shimon Peres in 2008 when the two men were visiting the United Nations caused a fire-storm in Egypt and in much of the Arab world. In the end, Tantawi retreated. He had not known with whom he was shaking hands, the mufti said, obviously a lie, but a politically essential one for his survival.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs paid tribute to Tantawi on Wednesday, calling him “a voice for faith and tolerance who was widely respected in Muslim communities in Egypt and around the globe, and by many who seek to build a world grounded in mutual respect.” Amen.
Judith Miller is a Manhattan Institute scholar and Fox News contributor.
===
EHRLICH, OTHERS EXAMINED
Tim Blair
Reasonable views from Greg Gutfeld.
===
KEVIN CARES
Tim Blair
Kevin Rudd in 2007:
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd called for better monitoring after reports three 457 visa holders had died in the past five months …Kevin Rudd in 2010:
Mr Rudd said he was sickened to think foreign workers may have died because shonky employers required them to perform work for which they were not qualified.
“The reports, if accurate, are revolting, absolutely revolting,” he said.
“There have been tragedies for people’s families. I understand that. But there are also tragedies with industrial accidents across the country in other areas.”(Via CL)
UPDATE. Speaking of threats to life:
(Via Dan F.)
===
YOU NEVER KNOW THE LIVES THEY’VE LED
Tim Blair
A beautiful column by Paul Toohey.
===
GOOD
Tim Blair
Following Newsweek‘s cover story, Jeff Jacoby also gives credit where it is due:
Ronald Reagan liked to say that there was no limit to what a man could accomplish if he didn’t mind who got the credit. The transformation of Iraq from a hellish tyranny into a functioning democracy will be recorded as a signal accomplishment of George W. Bush’s presidency, and he probably doesn’t mind in the least that the Obama administration would like to take the credit.It might be the defining moment of Obama’s presidency … and he opposed it.
(Via CL)
===
CEILING CAR
Tim Blair
Real or fake? Who cares:
===
The air is clearer, but the alarmists move on
Andrew Bolt
Professor Mark Perry skewers another alarmist, this time Paul Ehrlich:
Earth Day (April 22) is only six weeks away, and I just noticed that the (US) EPA recently updated air quality data for 2008 and thought it was worth featuring now in anticipation of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day:Erlich, incidentally is the author of the wrong-wrong-wrong The Population Bomb, and is now a warming worrier.
Predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970:“Air pollution is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich in an interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.Here we are 40 years later, the U.S. population has increased by more than 50%, traffic volume (miles driven) in the U.S. has increased 160%, and real GDP has increased 204%; and yet air quality in the U.S. is better than ever - nitrous dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead have all decreased between 46% and 92% between 1980 and 2008 (see chart).
Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.
“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.
“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.
The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970....
(Thanks to reader Craig.)
===
Did Indonesia crap on Rudd?
Andrew Bolt
Did President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set us up with his unusual gift for Kevin Rudd?
As is the custom on these occasions, bounty from Jakarta had arrived for Mr Rudd and his wife. As veteran Canberra political correspondent Laurie Oakes recorded the transaction for his television viewers on Wednesday evening, deadpan: ‘’The President and his first lady gave Mr Rudd and Therese Rein some rare luwak coffee. It’s made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of a monkey-like creature called a civet cat. A new treat at the Lodge: crapuccino!’’…I wonder whether the Indonesian’s got this idea from Yes, Prime Minister, which had the sneaky French make a gift to the Queen of a puppy:
The gesture runs counter to customs procedures… Such imports under Australian quarantine regulations normally require formal clearance from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS).
Had such clearance been given for SBY’s crapuccino? Apparently not. The bags of luwak coffee, still sealed, were shipped off to AQIS for proper processing.
===
Perhaps I’m Aboriginal, too
Andrew Bolt
Sally Riley is perfectly qualified for her new job at the ABC:
Sally Riley has been appointed to the newly-created position of Head of ABC TV’s Indigenous Department.Looking at Riley, I’d say that job was a lot easier than you might think.
Currently Head of Screen Australia’s Indigenous Unit, Sally has been in this role for the last nine years…
A member of the Wiradjuri nation, Sally was awarded the Australian Public Service Medal in 2008 for her services to the development of initiatives that have increased the participation of Indigenous Australians in the film and television industry.
(Thanks to reader Paul. No link to the ABC media release.)
===
Waste, waste, waste - and fires
Andrew Bolt
A program which Kevin Rudd claimed would cut emissions causes smoke instead:
Fire investigators will sift through the ruins of a family home in western Sydney this morning, amid suspicions faulty insulation could have set it on fire.More astonishing waste - with hot water systems simply handed to businesses who should pay for them themselves:
Fireman John Roach says the home at Woodpark has suffered very bad structural damage and may have to be demolished after its roof collapsed during the blaze.
The fire could be the 106th linked to the Government’s home insulation program.
THE Federal Government was in more hot water as a caravan park owner revealed he had received free hot water systems worth at least $270,000.Why are my taxes being used to pay for 46 hot water systems for a privately-owned caravan park?
The Herald Sun has learned the taxpayer-financed hot water systems went not only to sporting clubs. Caravan parks, motels and dairies said they’d also been swamped with units they didn’t need.
A prime example was Gippsland’s Yarram football club which has only a steel chook shed for a change rooms - with 10 new hot water systems sitting outside unused…
Mildura caravan park owner Ian McGlashan said he had been told he needed 176 units for his two parks. After 46 had been installed, he found that only a fraction of those were needed. “It is just total overkill,” he said.
UPDATE
Waste, waste, waste:
THE Government’s free hot water system program has been branded a disaster.UPDATE 2
Motel owners complain of flooding while others say units have been left rusting because they were given to sporting clubs with nowhere to put them… Catani football ground in Gippsland got 12 units for six showers, but turned them off because they were too expensive to run. Nilma Darnum club received 12 tanks for seven showers.
Waste, waste, waste:
The Federal Government has been unable to say what the ultimate price will be for its check of the safety and quality of insulation in 200,000 homes.UPDATE 3
The National Electrical and Communications Association’s James Tinslay estimates it could cost taxpayers up to $500 million to clean up, repair and replace poor-quality and dangerous roof insulation.
Treasurer Wayne Swan admitted that it was “not possible” to say what the clean-up cost would be.
Waste, waste, waste. Reader Walter Plinge says these free hot water systems aren’t even the right ones for the sports clubs that got them:
Even worse—installing mains pressure storage systems in a sporting club that operates one or two days a week. This situation is what instantaneous systems were developed for - so hot water is not kept hot when it’s not required. The waste of energy in this situation is prodigious.UPDATE 4
Quoting from a Rheem publication:According to Rheem the continuous flow water heater (also referred to as instantaneous) was originally developed overseas for use in apartment blocks, where lack of space prevented the installation of an economical mains pressure water heater, or for installations such as community sporting facilities where hot water requirements are sporadic, say at weekends only.
Waste, waste, waste. Reader John explains how the solar hot water scam worked, and why clubs, motels and caravan parks got offered dozens of water systems at a time:
How it works is that if I have a single heat pump hot water fitted in a house, because of the (Rudd Government) modelling, I get a credit of about 30 RECS (renewable energy certificates) which are worth say $50, hence I get $1500 off the price.Have you noticed how many of these green schemes get rorted? Imagine what a tsunami of rorts would be unleashed by Rudd’s colossal emissions trading scheme, with all those certificates of hot air.
But, If I link 3 together and call it a commercial model, you would think I get 3X 30 recs = 90. I would expect to get 90 X $50= $4500 per triplex model.
WRONG. Because it is now deemed a commercial model, there is a different computer model and you get about 500 RECS X$50= $25,000.
SO, I just rock up to a Motel owner with 20 rooms, say that I will provide each room with new hot water service for free, (but there will be 3 per room, don’t tell him that).
He will agree and next thing a B Double will arrive with 60 units. (HENCE 17 UNITS AT (legal snip - A TIME), THE EXCESS UNITS GO TO “OTHER PLACES” OR MATES OR OTHER MYTHICAL JOBS AS THEY ARE CLAIMED FOR IN BULK AND THEN POP UP AS DOMESTIC UNITS AND ANOTHER 30 RECS ARE PAID FOR BY THE GUMMENT.)
Anyway the customer just signs the paperwork, and I get, 20X3x$25000= $500,000 for the job. The hardware and fitting would be about $150K.
This happened all over the country at motels, hotels, schools, footy clubs etc etc and one heat pump company in particular has exploded its profit by a factor of about 10:1 within a year of starting operating as a supplier/contractor.
It is so bad that this loophole has absorbed the funds and skewed the whole RECS scheme as it was never intended to explode this way… Meanwhile the units just flow out and someone just cops $250,000 for free every motel he can sign up!!
I noted that in the article that something had been done in September last year but I can see on the ORER website that these models still attract RECS up to about 500 or so. I can only find some changes to Household units in September 2009.
I also see RECS are worth $40 at the moment. It must have cost us a millions of dollars so far, 100 motels as per the example would be $30,000,000.
===
High anxiety
Andrew Bolt
I suspect a (limited) case of mass hysteria, especially given the symptoms, the alleged cause, the announcement and the high proportion of cabin staff affected:
An intensive care paramedic and three ambulance crews met a Jetstar flight on arrival in Queensland this morning after six passengers fell ill on board.For a classic case of mass hysteria, and one where the cause was suppressed, read how Melbourne Airport was shut down. (No link, so read on.)
Ambulance officers assessed the passengers, who complained of nausea and headaches, during the Brisbane-to-Mackay flight. Four cabin crew were also checked after they reported feeling off-colour…
The passengers, who were not sitting in the same area, reported to cabin crew that they were smelling a strange odour, and started feeling light-headed and nauseous, said Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway. Their complaints were passed on to the pilot who made an announcement asking if there were any doctors on board…
The six passengers required no treatment and no one was transported to hospital, a Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said.
Mr Westaway said it remained “bit of a mystery” as to what might have caused the passengers to feel unwell.
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Too much the Brumby Government
Andrew Bolt
I’m not against politicians employing relatives in their electorate offices, if those people can do the job. After all, who’d be more loyal? But this seems excessive, and more a family-employment program, using taxpayers’ money:
THE State Government employs four members of Premier John Brumby’s family in taxpayer-financed jobs. Mr Brumby’s daughter, a nephew and two sisters-in-law work as electoral officers and inside his office and that of Deputy Premier Rob Hulls.
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No, China did not attack “deniers”
Andrew Bolt
ABC News Watch compares an ABC AM report to a Reuters one on China’s alleged attack on climate “deniers”:
In the AM report we hear a translation of Xie Zhenhua’s answer to a question from AM’s Stephen McDonell. The question was framed thus in the AM report:Not surprisingly, ABC News Watch has a long list of questions for the ABC regarding its report. My own would include:“I asked the panel what they thought of the view that climate change had nothing to do with human activity and was in fact a natural phenomenon.”In the AM report Xie Zhenhua’s answer to this question is preceded by the following statement: “Deputy director Xie answered that he believed that manmade climate change denial is, at best, a very marginal view.”
In the AM report Xie Zhenhua is reported as saying the following in answer to McDonell (translated - by the ABC or Chinese officials?):“Climate change is a fact based on long-time observations by countries around the world. The mainstream view is that climate change is caused by burning of fossil fuel in the course of industrialisation. And there’s a more extreme view which holds that human activity has only an imperceptible impact on the natural system.”The Reuters report however attributes the following statement to Xie Zhenhua (translated - by Reuters or other Chinese officials?):“There are still two different viewpoints in the scientific field about the cause of warming,” Xie told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament. “At present, many people, or the most mainstream view, is that the combustion of large amounts of fossil fuel over the process of industrialisation caused an increase in greenhouse gases, which caused climate warming.” “Another point of view holds that the main reason is changes in sunspots, or natural changes in the environment. There is an even more extreme point of view, that human influence on changes in nature can only be miniscule,” he added."”In addition to the apparent mis-quote, we note that Xie Zhenhua did not use the term “denial”. This term appears to have been introduced into the report by the ABC reporter Stephen McDonell, or at a later stage by ABC editorial staff.
In the ABC ONLINE report the opening paragraph states:“A deputy director of China’s most powerful economic ministry has come out swinging against climate change denial.”
Who added the word “deniers”, and why?
Why did the ABC not report Xie Zhenhua saying, without any criticism at all, that recent warming may in fact be largely natural?
Why did the ABC give the false impression that Xie was attacking all sceptics, when he plainly did not?
(Thanks to reader MarcH.)
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Dam fine Premier
Andrew Bolt
AT last! A premier backs my long campaign for a new dam for this thirsty city.
Hear the brave man speak, after wringing last week’s torrential rain from his soaked Hawthorn scarf.
“Most of the water that has fallen in the last week will run off into the sea,” he notes sadly.
“Again an abject waste of our most valuable resource, and one that if captured, stored and delivered appropriately could provide for our needs on the eastern and southeastern seaboard of our country for years ... “
But I’ve let the wet cat out of the bag. Premier John Brumby is, shudder, a Collingwood supporter, and his green Government remains religiously opposed to any new dam. Which is one reason this city has been on water restrictions for eight years already.
No, the dam-backer is former premier Jeff Kennett, now just president of the Hawthorn Football Club, which doesn’t do dam building. But soon even Brumby may be forced to contemplate what his Government has long banned.
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How Rudd blows your billions
Andrew Bolt
THINK you must now have heard the worst of Kevin Rudd’s colossal waste of your billions?
Think nothing could top Rudd’s spending $1.5 billion on free insulation so dodgy that he must spend an estimated $450 million more to pull it out or make it safe?
Then check out this shack above.
It’s actually a school library being built at Stuarts Point with cash from perhaps the most scandalously wasteful of all the Rudd Government’s “stimulus” packages.
How much would you pay for it, do you think? $150,000? $200,000, tops?
Ha! Try $931,000, sucker. And that’s out of your pocket, too.
For a contrast, check what you’d get for less than a quarter of the price if the school had cut out the Government middlemen and simply picked a whole house off the shelf from a builder.
Ezyhomes, for instance, offers a 182sq m house called the Outlook (below), with a huge central area just right for a reading or teaching area, as well as three bedrooms you could use for the books, or knock out to make bigger spaces. Add toilets, kitchen and veranda and you’d still have change from $220,000.
Or check what the Australian Construction Handbook of 2008 says you should actually pay for a single-storey primary school building - around $1300 per square metre, actually, or about a tenth of what Stuarts Point’s library costs.
This is not a lone example, either. All round the country you’ll find the same astonishingly inflated prices for buildings knocked up in a hurry under rush-rush-Rudd’s Building the Education Revolution, set up last year to hurl $16.2 billion into quick-quick building projects for schools to “save” us from a catastrophic recession that the Reserve Bank now admits was just one of our milder downturns.
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A school for scandalous spending
Andrew Bolt
Even the schools getting $16.2 billion of your cash in rush-rush-Rudd’s massive spend-up aren’t happy:
MORE than half of the state’s schools are unhappy with their new halls, libraries or classrooms built under the Federal Government’s $14 billion education revolution.UPDATE
Concerns include inferior work, waste and worries schools were being ripped off.
A snap survey of 200 schools statewide shows 117 believe the construction projects are not providing value for money or have been delayed, seriously disrupting classes and students’ activities…
Cost blowouts running to hundreds of thousands of dollars on original estimates and radical changes to projects are the main gripes cited by principals battling to manage education programs on a construction site.
More waste, with state schools forced to go through government to get work done:
A NSW public school compelled to use a government-approved contractor for renovations to its school hall under the Building the Education Revolution scheme says it was quoted $200,000 more than a neighbouring private school, which used a local contractor.
St Paul’s Lutheran School and Henty Public School in the rural town of Henty, near Wagga Wagga, in the state’s southwest, each received $850,000 under the federal government’s $6.2 billion school infrastructure scheme.
Henty Public School hoped to restore its hall and renovate the school’s 1950s toilet block, but was unable to refurbish the toilet block after it was given a $230,000 quote from contractor Laing O’Rourke for building management and design of the hall.
As a private school, St Paul’s managed its own funds and employed a local contractor who used the money to build three classrooms, a toilet block and playground area, with $31,000 for building management and design…
The company’s response was that it needed approval from the government at every stage of the design and construction process and was also “required to report weekly and monthly to the Government on a myriad of matters”.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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NSW Labor want to grab your land for developers
Andrew Bolt
The NSW Government wants to seize the land of citizens and hand it to developers:
THE state government is rushing to prepare laws to create a development authority with sweeping powers to compulsorily acquire and rezone privately owned land for resale to developers.Who could possibly object? Who could think the NSW Government is already too close to gimme-cash developers? Who could doubt that this new body would seize the land of the Point Piper rich just as readily as it would grab the dirt of Mr and Mrs Nobody? Which of us truly thinks the Government is already overmighty?
With Sydney’s population set to grow 40 per cent to 6 million in the next 25 years, the government has decided it needs a metropolitan development authority to buy privately owned land near rail and bus routes for medium- and high-density housing…
Cabinet is still fine-tuning details, including the contentious issue of the amount of compensation paid to landowners whose properties are compulsorily acquired by the government for resale.
While government departments such as the Roads and Traffic Authority have the power to compulsorily acquire land, they can do so only when it is used for a public purpose.In contrast, the metropolitan development authority would allow compulsory acquisition of land for private companies to construct and sell housing for profit
(Thanks to reader Big Ted, who even has his hand up, too.)
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The stimulus hurts
Andrew Bolt
They spend, you pay:
THE rapid jobs growth of the past five months has come to a halt, with new figures showing it was driven more by the government’s stimulus programs than by underlying strength in the economy, as the Reserve Bank believed.
The RBA has relied on the apparent strength of the labour market to justify its rapid run of interest rate rises.
The latest figures suggest the RBA has been raising rates in response to stimulus, rather than real underlying growth in the economy…
Yesterday’s labour force figures showed the unemployment rate held at 5.3 per cent in February, with fewer people looking for work and only 400 jobs in total added to the workforce.
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Rudd not insulated from blame at all
Andrew Bolt
I’ve said before it’s inconceivable that Peter Garrett kept his worries about this insulation disaster to himself. Kevin Rudd is up to his neck in this:
KEVIN Rudd says he was alerted to potential safety problems with the government?s home insulation program as early as August 2009 and will be subjected to Opposition questioning on the matter next week.UPDATE
The Prime Minister was forced to give a detailed run down of his knowledge of problems with the scheme in parliament today, conceding he received notification about compliance issues on August 14 last year.
Mr Rudd said the issues were drawn to his attention by then Environment Minister Mr Garrett in a letter proposing increased compliance requirements.
If the letter cleared Rudd, he’d release it in a flash:
Mr Rudd says he received a letter from then-Environment Minister Peter Garrett on August 14 last year, asking permission to make changes to the scheme, but he will not say why the request was made.(Thanks to reader Pira.)
“These are obviously associated with the Cabinet process and we appropriately protect it,” he said.
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Fraser damns Australia for “abuses” he forgives in China
Andrew Bolt
How consumed with spite is Malcolm Fraser for John Howard? How unmoored is his criticism for his own country, and how uncritical is he, on the other hand, of the rising tyrannies?
Hear his interview with a startled Sam Roggeveen. Excerpts:
You can see human rights through different perspectives…But, says Roggeveen, isn’t that an excuse for repression by the Chinese regime? Fraser explodes:
There’s much more openness in China than when I first went there in 1976 and it’s a much freer society … We need to try and see the world as China sees it if we want to interpret Chinese actions appropriately and we need to have in mind that whenever China has had a weak central government the country has fallen into chaos and disrepair. Any government in Beijing … would still want to make sure that Beijing remain very strong to prevent history from repeating itself in Chinese terms.
But we’re prepared to violate human rights in Australia, aren’t we? We’ve denied human rights in a real sense to Indigenous Australians for far too long. We were prepared to see an Australian [Cornelia Rau] shut up in an immigration detention centre totally illegally, to see an Australian [Vivienne Solon] deported totally illegally….I find it hard to believe that such utter nonsense - such mendacity - needs any point by point rebuttal.
Now a government’s willingness to deny human rights to one person indicates a willingness to deny human rights to other people and what right does that give us to preach to other countries whose circumstances are so totally different to ours?
But I’ll just note that Rau, for instance, tried with great success while in detention to pose as a German tourist, speaking with an assumed accent, refusing to identiy herself and hiding her documentation. She was not locked up deliberately as Chinese officials lock up, say,Christians, dissidents, democrats and union officials. Moreover, far from the Howard Government conniving at these “human rights abuses”, it apologised to both Rau and Solon and paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.
To liken that to China’s lack of democracy, its lack of any real rule of law, its lack of free speech, its imprisonment of critics and its execution of many hundreds of people each year - or, worse, to damn Australia by comparison - is an insult not just to this country but to reason and morality.
Fraser is a buffoon. That is not some cheap insult. it is no more than the plain truth.
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Yet another
Andrew Bolt
More than 1000 boat people have landed here this year already:
A boat carrying asylum seekers has been intercepted off the Northern Territory coast… It is believed 24 passengers and three crew were on board the boat, and authorities say the asylum seekers have been transferred to HMAS Glenelg.(Thanks to reader Pira.)
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